This is a photo of Jacob HUIZEL (middle) and two unknown women. Jacob is my wife’s great-great uncle. The reason for the “One-Arm” title is that we found an earlier photo of Jacob and on the back it just said “Uncle Jake” and under it was written “(one arm)”. There are a few photos like this one, but it’s always hard to tell if he does only have one arm. If I would take a guess, it would be his right arm since you can see his left one. Family mysteries, huh?
Here is another generic cemetery image. I took this one a few years back on my first trip to Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee. It is probably one of the most interesting and beautiful cemeteries I’ve seen yet. This one came out nice in the fall. I wish I could find my originals. These copies aren’t of very good quality.
I did a basic post on Forest Home Cemetery as my first post of the Graveyard Rabbit of Southeastern Wisconsin site.
July 12th
1879 – Born – Minnie M (MUHM) VAN PRICE – Minnie is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Wisconsin. She married Peter VAN PRICE in about 1895 and had 6 children, including my great-grandmother, Mildred (VAN PRICE) DEBROUX. She died on 6 Jul 1959 at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery.
July 13th
1627 – Married – Guillaume TRAHAN & Francoise CHARBONNEAU – Guillaume and Francoise are my 10th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married at St. Etienne, Chinon, France. They immigrated to Canada and passed away at Port Royal, Arcadia, Canada.
1720 – Born – Paulus VAN CRAYBECK – Paulus is my 7th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born at Genk, Limburg, Belgium. In about 1748, he married my 7th-great-grandmother, Maria TRUIJEN. He died 23 Sep 1781 at Genk.
1876 – Died – William “Curly Bill” CORRIGAN – William is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born either in New York or on the trip from Ireland. I’ve seen both. On 14 Nov 1848, he married Mary MCCANN. He passed away in Mara Township, Brenchin, Ontario, Canada.
July 14th
1963 – Died – Augusta (LUEDTKE) LAST – Augusta is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 3 Jul 1863 in Storkow, Pommerania, which located in the western part of today’s Poland. She married Carl LAST in 1883 and had 16 children. She died just 2 weeks after her 100th birthday in 1963.
July 15th
1610 – Born – Herman VAN CREIJBECK – Herman is my 10th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium. In 1632, he married Joanna PANSARS at St. Lambertus, Herck, Belgium. He passed away on 13 Dec 1649 at St. Lambertus.
July 16th
1810 – Born – Ephraim Gadiou dit ST. LOUIS – Ephraim is my 4th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. In 1831, he married Marie DesAnges MANSEAU. He later moved to Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin where he passed away on 27 Mar 1892.
July 17th
1920 – Born – Irene (ZALEWSKI) LUTZENBERGER – Irene is my great aunt on my father’s side. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Joseph ZALEWSKI and Emily TROKA. She passed away in June 1996 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.
July 18th
1965 – Died – Frances (ZALEWSKI) CYBELA – Frances is my great-great-aunt on my father’s side. She was born 15 Apr 1895 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Frank ZALEWSKI and Anna LINDNER. She married Edwin CYBELA in 1916. She passed away in Milwaukee at the age of 70.
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This is a photo of the 3 youngest daughters of Mathias & Pauline (THOMPSON) FIRMENICH; Ida, Edna, and Claire. As it is noted, I’m assuming this photo was taken in the Summer of 1912, which would be two years after the death of their mother, Pauline. It was probably taken in the Ashland/Sanborn, Wisconsin area since they are located there in the 1905 Wisconsin Census.
I have found what I think is the passenger list for my 4th-great-grandparents (found via my 3rd-great-grandfather, Mathias FIRMENICH.) They had it transcribed as Fermainz, which is does look like, but I can see FIRMENICH in it also. Now, a lot of things match up. The list is from April 22, 1847, which is when this family supposedly immigrated according to multiple obituaries, etc.
Now, I’m lost on a few of the other entries. The wife is listed as what looks like either “Marie” or “Vorpal.” Peter and his wife both have another word before their names, which I can’t make out. I’m only assuming it means either “Husband” or “Father” or something similar since I seem to see it on other families in the list, which would make his wife listed as “Vorpal.” According to Mathias’ marriage record, his mother is listed as Anne Marie TURSELL. I have yet to find her in the census records since I can only find the family in 1860+ and she is not listed. Though, I’m pretty sure she made the trip since they have another son in Wisconsin in 1849.
I also don’t have records of their first two children, daughters Anna and another name I can’t read. Though, their ages would allow them to have been married and gone by the time I found them in the 1860 census, so those are completely possible.
I also can’t make out what I think is the home location. It looks like it says either “Glehy” or “Glihy.” It is also listed for another individual lower in the list. One thing that stuck out is that the “G” on that word doesn’t look much like the other G’s they’ve written, so I don’t know if it’s a G or not.
Is there anyone out there that has some talent at transcribing old German handwriting? Though, this may possibly be in Belgian/French since the port was Antwerp, Belgium. Maybe even another set of fresh eyes will help. The full image is linked below. Thanks.
[ FULL IMAGE LINK ] – Listing is about 75% down the page.
[ Photo in personal possession of Mary Jane Zalewski ]
I have a new headstone for today. Thanks to Steph F at Find-a-Grave, I now have a photo of the headstone of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Maria BRAATZ. I had run across the info from a transcription of a few cemeteries in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. She is buried at Little Wolf Cemetery in Manawa, Waupaca Co., Wisconsin. In the trascription, she was listed as “Maria frau von Wm” which roughly translates to “Maria, wife of William.” Maria’s husband is Wilhelm BRAATZ. There is no record of his burial, but it is assumed he’s buried nearby even if there is no stone. We’ll be checking into that to make sure.
Just spent some time today browsing around random Dutch and Belgian websites looking for that one clue to break open some information. I have listed that my 3rd-great-grandparents, Desire and Desiree DeBroux (that’s a mouthful), were both born in Belgium. It specifically lists it as Brussels, Belgium, but that was a major city, so who knows. I ran across a Belgian site called “Netradyle,” and with some help from Google Translate, was able to figure out how to use it.
I originally got there while doing some random searching for some of my wife’s ancestors, but I thought I’d give the DeBroux family a shot. They both had pretty unique names, even if it was a somewhat normal Belgian name, it still sticks out. I searched birth records for DeBroux and found a lot and checked all of the Desires with no luck. I then figured out that I was only searching birth records, so I tried the marriage records. Fortunately, I did have an idea of when they were married due to census records and I had their birth dates from their headstone (as much as I could read it.) Using all of these dates, I ran across an entry for a marriage between Joseph Désiré DEBROUX and Marie Désirée LOOD on 30 Nov 1854.
A few things match up here. Désiré and Désirée both match their names in the census records. I also have their marriage as being in about 1855, due to math using the census records, and it says there were married in Wallon Brabant, Belgium, which is the same province that Brussels is in.
Using that info, I then looked up their birth records and I found Jean Joseph Désiré DEBROUX born on 16 Feb 1830 in Piétrebais, Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium. Piétrebais is a small village southeast of Brussels. Well, look at that, another match. I have that Desire DEBROUX was born on 16 Feb 1830 from both the census records and his headstone. The same thing happened with his wife. I found a Marie Désirée LOOD born on 1 Apr 1829 also in Piétrebais, Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium. I didn’t have her exact birth date, but I did have Apr 1829 from the census and the readable parts of her headstone.
Obviously, I can’t guarantee a perfect match, but this does seem to fit a lot of the required fields. Along with this information, it also lists Desire’s parents as Jean Joseph DEBROUX and Anne Catherine LANGELE (LENGELE). It also lists a village after their name in parenthesis. I’m not sure what this means exactly, but Jean has (Corroy) and Anne has (Gistoux) which are both in the same province. It then lists Desiree’s parents as Francois Eugene LOOD and Marie Catherine DUPONT. This one only lists a village after her mother’s name, Opprebais.
This brings me to my question. While typing in some other names from this search, it seems that one family gave every child the middle name of Joseph (Josephe for the girls.) But, besides that, I see Joseph an awful lot in these searches. Was there anything special about the name Joseph, or do you think it was a family name of some sort?
July 5th
1903 – Born – Mildred Vida VAN PRICE – Mildred is my great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Hutchins, Shawano Co., Wisconsin. In 1921, she married my great-grandfather, Leon DEBROUX. She passed away in 1994, so I was able to get to know her a little bit.
July 6th
1846 – Born – Charles Ludovicus VAN PARIJS – Charles is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Ijzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands. You may see the resemblance in the surnames of Charles and Mildred above. It turns out that VAN PRICE is the Americanized version of VAN PARIJS. Once I figured that out, I found a ton of information as I posted about before. Charles is Mildred’s grandfather. We are not sure when Charles died, as he went missing in 1922.
1959 – Died – Minnie M MUHM – Minnie is my great-great-grandmother. She was born on 12 Jul 1879 in Wisconsin. She was married to Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS, who is Charles’ son, and was Mildred’s mother. I sense a theme here. She passed away at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery there.
July 8th
1722 – Died – Madeleine PEPIN – Madeleine is my 9th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 19 Nov 1657 in Trois-Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. She married Francois ROUSSEL in 1671. She passed away at Trois-Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada.
July 9th
1920 – Died – Johanna Maria KREBBEKX – Johanna is my 3rd-great-grandmother. Here we go with the theme again. Johanna was Charles’ wife and Mildred’s grandmother. Johanna was born 11 Sep 1846 in Holland. She married Charles in 1870. She passed away at Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin.
July 10th
1653 – Married – Laurent GIGNAC-GIGNARD & Marie Elisabeth Sorin SORET – Laurent and Marie are my 10th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They had at least one child, my ancestor, Francois GRIGNAC in about 1657.
1948 – Died – Frank F BRAATZ – Frank is my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born 17 Apr 1867 in Germany. In 1891, he married Margaret K STEARNS. He passed away at Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Mt. Hope Cemetery.
July 11th
1715 – Died – Louise VACHON – Louise is my 9th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 25 May 1662 at Beauport, Montmorency, Canada (which I think is in Quebec.) She married Leonard PAILLE in 1678 and passed away at Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
This is a photo of my grandparents, Richard & Mary Jane (Corrigan) ZALEWSKI from August 1947.
